July 31, 2018 | 2 Comments In my previous post about my work on the carving knife I mentioned that I thought I had stumbled into a differential heat treat. But I wasn’t sure until I actually etched the blade. Well my ferric chloride arrived the other day. It comes with all kinds of fun tidbits on the bottle, like “caustic” and “poison.” I diluted it 1:1 with water and stuck the knife in. After about half an hour I took it out and abraded the surface with fine sandpaper. Here’s what I saw: Pretty, right? I expected more waving in the line between hard and soft, but I didn’t have any idea that the grain of the cold rolled annealed (CRA) steel would show up like it did. It turns out that CRA 1095 is already poor-man’s Damascus. Who knew? I put it into its handle and sharpened it up. I like how the grain of the metal and the grain of the wood almost line up. I expect some more etching in my future, whether I do differential heat treatments or not. It adds that bit of texture and interest that I’d be missing otherwise. Thanks for reading. Part 1
Thanks! Yeah, it’s on my list but I will probably need to get another propane torch to harden it. Bigger knives lose their heat faster than my little torch and pile of firebricks can pump it in. Log in to Reply